Honestly, they better be damn sure some of these kids in the minors can fill the 4th line and PK role. Or they have a cheaper guy in mind to sign.
There will be new additions via the minors and free agency to fill out the bottom 2 lines and the temporary excitement about removing effort players from the roster while ignoring the top line's failures isn't likely solve this year's postseason problems. I think Laf should be seeing more special teams Dump, Lav has to see his emerging promise. I would think this is a make or break year for Drury.
Devils got Marstrcock. They gave up pretty much the only young defensive defenseman who can play defense they have.
San Jose claims Goodrow on waivers saving rangers Goodrow entire salary. Hey San Jose, can we do the same with trouba and lindgren?
Getting rid of Goodrow's full $3.642M cap hit is huge, thank you San Jose. That leaves us with just over $12.8M in cap space. Lindgren and Schneider will get new deals as RFA's, and then I fully expect Drury to add a big player at RW to play with Kreider and Zibanejad. Like I mentioned earlier, I have seen Toffoli mentioned a few times, I kind of hope Drury can do better than that, but we'll see. I do agree the big question is Trouba, does he stay and play on the 3rd pair, or does Drury trade him or buy him out. I highly doubt a buyout happens because Drury should be able to trade Trouba if he were willing to retain some cap hit. His contract is not awful if Drury retains $3M +/-, and only has two years remaining. At $5M per Trouba is good value. As for Lindgren, he is an RFA so we wouldn't need any team to help us out, we could simply not re-sign him if we don't want to, but we will I believe. The question is at what number. Lindgren's qualifying offer is $3.6M, so I don't see him getting less than that. You could make the case, one of Lindgren or Trouba should be gone considering at the very least you are looking at $11.6M tied up in the two of them, and Trouba will be on the 3rd pair. If you asked me, that would be my focus, to move on from one of the two, and preferably it would be Trouba, with a little salary retained, 2 or 3 million, if needed. Schneider I would think will get a bridge deal given the current cap situation. Two years $2M per or so seems reasonable. His qualifying offer is $874,125.
Lavy needs to reduce Z and Kreider pk time... notice our pk didn't do as well once Jimmy V went down..
I feel for Goodrow. Liked him as a player but the day they signed him to that contract I thought they drastically overpaid for him. The options the Rangers had for him were basically 1) Do nothing, continue to play/pay him. 2) Buy him out and deal with the cap hit. 3) Send him to the AHL after clearing waivers. 4) Try to get pennies on the dollar back for him in a trade. That San Jose takes him off their hands at no cost to the Rangers that is the best case scenario they could've asked for. He was brought in and advertised to be a difference maker in the playoffs and while he had his moments this year, he has largely been a playoff bust. What he does well (faceoffs, PK, play with a slight edge) can easily be replaced at a much lower cost. You can't pay a guy like that $3.6m/yr to play on the 4th line and PK. A little sad to see him go as I liked him, he seemed like one of the few stand up guys on the roster but it's a $ game/decision and it really couldn't have worked out any better for the Rangers. Of course the challenge is finding the right replacement. Hopefully Drury comes through.
Well said Grey, agree 100%. In our situation, you cannot pay Goodrow $3.642M per season to do what he does, that is money very poorly spent. It is simply a numbers game, and when he has never had more than 2 goals in ANY playoff season prior to this one, 1 goal in 16 playoff games as a Ranger prior to this season and has 15 goals combined in 162 games the past two regular seasons, we could not afford to pay a 4th line guy $3.642M for that type of production.
They also will have Vesey for another year. He kills penalties and was missed when he was out against Florida. This dude has to play again for a contract so expect a good year from him. I think he wants to stay with the rangers beyond this year. And please find a better partner for Fox because Lindgren isn’t it.
The best approach may be moving on from Trouba also. Then you can add a legit RW to play with Kreider and Zibanejad and add a legit bigger more physical dman to play with Fox. Miller/Schneider could be your 2nd pair, and Lindgren/Jones (or another lesser vet signed) could be your 3rd pair. You give some kids and maybe low dollar vets a chance to complete the 4th line. With Cuylle, Othmann, and maybe Sykora (or Rempe or Edstrom or Brod) ready to have roles in the bottom 6 this season, and Kakko, Chytil, and Vesey also in the bottom 6, I think we should have good depth upfront. If you upgrade the 1st line with a legit top line RW, and you upgrade the top 4 D with a big physical guy to pair with Fox, that is a clearly improved team IMO. Assuming Drury won't trade a core guy.
There is, they have young talent, and they want a leader and past winner like Goodrow, and they needed to add a lot of money to get to the NHL cap floor every team must be at.
If i had to guess i'd say one of Kane, Duchene or Tarasenko will be here, though he may end up staying in Florida.
Reading Brooks' article, sounds like Drury was ruthless and all about business with this move, and SJ was on Goodrow's 15 team no trade list, but it didn't matter, and he waived him even though it didn't sit well with Goodrow. Good for Drury doing what is best for the team, and not worrying about feelings, that is what winning organizations do as Brooks points out and having a 4th line guy counting for nearly $3.642M against the cap is not good for the organization. Which is why Trouba might be next, as having a 3rd pair dman counting for $8M against the cap is not good for the organization either. I also agree with Brooks on Toffoli, he is not the answer. I could be wrong, but I think Drury is aiming for big things, not a whatever guy like Toffoli. If he is not going to trade a core guy, the more I think about it the way to go is add a legit RW, and a bigger physical dman to pair with Fox. You back that up with a 3rd line of Kakko/Chytil/Othmann, and a 4th line of Vesey/Cuylle/Brod or Rempe or Edstrom or a vet added. If you can do those things, the team will be better for it.
I feel bad for Goodrow the way it went down, but unfortunately, I don’t think there was another solution. You could also say he got paid salary a lot more than he was worth. Trouba is the next to go most likely.
I hear you, but Goodrow is just fine, he is overpaid, and has gotten/will get a lot of money due to that. Let's not forget he also started his career in SJ, so he's going home so to speak. I like the fact Drury was ruthless in this case, it's how you have to be sometimes if you want to win. If Drury is not going to make a big trade with core guys, the moves to me are: Trouba gone via trade or buyout - hopefully trade which should be doable if Drury retains 2 or 3 million per. His buyout would save $4M per each of the next two seasons, with $2M per dead money against the cap the following two seasons. Sign a legit RW to play with Kreider and Zibanejad. Add a big physical dman to pair with Fox and move Lindgren to the 3rd pair. If Drury can get that done, I think we will be in a very good position going into next season.
Dumping a 4th line center to free up cap space isn't ruthless, shaking up the top of the lineup by moving Fox before his NTC kicks in to free up cap space would be ruthless. Also I'd be looking to move Chytil and his $4.5 if there were any interested teams.
